“It would be difficult for the great and simple truths of Christianity to be made
more living and attractive than in the expression that they receive in this book.
The two principal characters described are Winifred Forceyth and Mary Cabot;
the one a pure and noble woman, who, having passed through the valley of affliction,
has lifted herself above all clouds of sorrow and doubt, whose being is permeated
by the divinest spiritual influences, and whose external life is a perpetual
effluence of holiness and beneficence; the other a warm-hearted, passionate girl,
thrown by a sudden and deep grief into despairing gloom, until guided by her
companions to the sunny heights from which she beholds, not in brief glimpses,
but with an assured and steadfast vision, the glories of the world beyond the
grave. The story is completely subordinated to the development of the author's
religious opinions, but her dramatic power is none the less remarkable.”

“Of all the books which we ever read, calculated to shed light upon the utter
darkness of sudden sorrow, and to bring peace to the bereaved and solitary, we
give — in many important respects — the preference to `The Gates Ajar.”'